Muslim women auctioned off in spite of themselves

In India, Internet users have cyber-harassed around 100 Muslim women by auctioning them with photos and personal contact details. Routine online violence according to those concerned.

In Jaipur, India, Amaana Begum was shocked when she saw herself on Twitter in July 2021 as “promo of the day” on the site “Sulli Deals.” The term Sulli is an insult used by Hindu nationalists in India to refer to Muslim women.

Other women with similar profiles across India have seen their personal details and photos shared online. “I was amazed that strangers managed to compile my personal data for publication”, says Fatima Zohra, lawyer and social worker, to VICE World News. And to add: “Now, as soon as I go out, I feel like I’m being spied on.”

In fact, more than 100 women have had their photos and information (stolen from their social media) posted online on Sulli Deals, an auction site. Similar to eBay, the site offered Internet users to bet a sum on one or more women while being able to access their photos and social networks. Most of the profiles posted were of female journalists, activists, analysts, artists or researchers in India. One click transferred the interested parties to the victims’ Twitter account.

“It was humiliating and traumatic” says Saniya Sayed, a 28-year-old journalist. “We were auctioned off like cattle. It is no more and no less than trafficking.”

Indian Islamophobia in numbers

In India, according to an activist account which identifies Islamophobic crimes, some 400 acts of violence against Muslims have taken place in the past four years. An organization report “Citizens against hate”, intended for the UN, attests to a rise in Islamophobic criminal acts since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ultra-conservative and nationalist Hindu party. However, 14% of the Indian population identifies as Muslim, ie 182 million individuals.

In a press release to VICE World News, the Delhi Police Communications Officer said their cybercrime cell had filed a complaint against the app’s creators on July 8, 2021. The site’s host, GitHub, was also contacted for questioning, according to the report. police. The investigation is ongoing.

Hide to protect yourself

A spokesperson for GitHub said the service suspended the accounts of all users linked to “Sulli Deals.” However, for the victims, who are still awaiting the conclusions of the investigation, the harassment continues. The only solution for many of these women is to withdraw from social networks and be silent. One of the victims even shared on Twitter a message received from her father, which the latter sent to all the women in the family. He did not know then that his daughter was part of the list of 100 women for sale: “Remove all your photos from social networks, never mention your age or where you live. This case should all make us react because the consequences could be terrible for the victims.”

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Be a Muslim Woman Online

Muslim women, according to the victims, are at the intersection of two oppressions that they experience on a daily basis: Islamophobia and misogyny. “Their act is the illustration of a pathological misogyny coupled with a religious intolerance which targets the visible and publicly active Muslim women” explains Saniya Sayed to VICE. “This auction was a psychological attack to remind us that we are second-class citizens in our country and that we can be treated like this with impunity.”

For Mumbai-based lawyer and social worker Fatima Zohra, you have to go directly to the courts if the police do nothing. “We must no longer take this cyber-harassment as normal. History must be changed.”

Dan Hastings

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